Many enterprises have begun to employ surveys as tools to track their customer service, product reviews, etc. Some of these enterprises provide services related to sensitive information, such as health care information that falls under HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), financial information, identity-related information, etc.
With the advent of smart phones, tablets, and other similar devices, survey providers may create applications that provide a direct portal to their survey tools over the Internet. Users employing the application may inadvertently leave them ‘open’ on their mobile devices. This may cause concern because of the sensitive nature of the information that may be accessible on the mobile devices.
Many of these applications provide security through the portal to the service itself, through user name and password access that the user enters when the application connects to the service. Many of these user name and password processes may include a ‘site key’ such as a picture or graphic that verifies to the user that the user is on a legitimate site. However, there is very little security provided at the device level.